Saturday Times 24939 (27th August)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
A dozy 25 minutes or so on a far too early train Monday morning, about 5 minutes of which I’d actually nodded off! Some vocab difficulties – I vaguely remembered 6D from somewhere, but 28A was derived from the obvious homophone, as I’d never come across it before.

Across
1 HALF-MAST – HAL (prince) + M(otor) inside FAST.
6 AMAZON – A MAN (chap) around OZ (lightweight = ounce) reversed.
9 FOUR – double definition.
10 ARTICULATE – (p)ARTICULA(r) (endlessly fastidious) + TE (note).
11 SEMICIRCLE – SEMI (house) + CIRCLE (seating area with many rows). I’ve seen D in a similar clue before.
13 OKRA – hidden in “coOK RAther”, with “shrivelled” apparently meaning “remove a few letters from both ends”.
14 SIGNED IN – SIGNE(t) (short ring) + DIN (noise).
16 INDIUM – double definition, sort of – IN (Chemical symbol for Indium), and a facetious indication that INDIA might be its Latin plural. Nice one, setter!
18 SEA DOG – (DOE, gas)*
20 INSOMNIA – cryptic definition.
22 PLUS – double definition.
24 TRESPASSES – TRESSES (hair) round SPA (bath), ref. the Lord’s Prayer.
26 UNRECORDED – double definition.
28 KIST – sounds like “kissed”. New one for me, according to Chambers this is a Scottish or Northern English word for a chest or coffin.
29 SNATCH – SATCH(mo) around N(ote). Satchmo was the nickname of the great Louis Armstrong.
30 EYESTALK – (debat)E + YES (I agree) + TALK (to speak).

Down
2 AT ONE TIME – ATONE TIME
3 FOREIGN – (of)* + REIGN. I couldn’t find the exact phrase “not typical” as a definition in any of my dictionaries.
4 AMATI – A + MAT (dull) + I. Niccolo Amati was the best-known of this family of violin makers.
5 TAT – TA T(a).
6 ASCLEPIUS – (Capsule is)*. Ancient Greek god of medicine and healing.
7 ALL TOLD – double definition.
8 OUTER – (p)OUTER. Not sure whether I’ve heard of a pouter as a type of pigeon before, but it was the first thing I checked.
12 CANDIDE – CANDID + E(uropean). A satirical work by Voltaire.
15 DOGS-TOOTH – DO (to make) + G(ood), then T(ime) inside SOOTH (truth). “A broken-check pattern used extensively in the weaving of tweeds”, says Chambers.
17 UNIVERSAL – (veal ruins)*. A universal joint is one capable of turning in all directions.
19 DISSECT – DISSENT with C(lubs) replacing (chairme)N.
21 MESS KIT – MESS (spoil) + KIT (common nickname for Christopher).
23 LENIN – LEN IN. Len Hutton was one of England’s greatest cricketers, although a bit before my time.
25 PADRE – PAD (guard) + R.E. (Royal Engineers = troops).
27 DOE – alternate letters of DoOmEd.

17 comments on “Saturday Times 24939 (27th August)”

  1. Not too difficult although Indium took me forever to find. Not come across kist before. Foreign in the sense of “foreign to one’s nature” means uncharacteristic which is close enough to untypical I reckon.

    Whatever else I was going to say is forgotten in my rage at being unable to access the crossword website this morning… “there was a problem: Error: CROSSWORD_CONNECTION_BAD!”

      1. Same problem here since last night. It’s an new error, which might be accused of stating the bleeding obvious.

        Because of this, unable to check my time, but I don’t think I had too much trouble, other than the self-inflicted injury of writing in HALF-PAST instead of HALF-MAST for no good reason.

    2. I’ve had this message a dozen times over the last few months, but heretofore simply clicking OK sufficed. This time, no; and from about 3pm yesterday (Pacific Daylight Time, 11pm Greenwich) until sometime this morning, the site was either unavailable, or else I could only see my profile. I trust Admin has been informed about the Jumbo?
      I had this one done, anyway, in 40 minutes, except for FOUR and INDIUM; I thought of both, assumed FOUR had something to do with cricket, but foolishly tried to play with the alphabet on INDIUM. So I have no idea what my total time was, but given those two clues, I don’t much mind; I share Jimbo’s assessment of INDIUM.
  2. Agreed, only INDIUM was difficult and it made me groan once I saw it – horrible!

    Len Hutton was a classic opening bat – impecable technique. Great to watch him play Ray Lindwall at top speed.

  3. Just on the hour for this one but I required help with the anagram at 7dn. Didn’t know this or KIST or MESS KIT meaning smart clothes. I was familiar with DOGS- TOOTH particularly with reference to Harris tweed jackets.

  4. Is anyone else having problems logging on to the crossword site? Fromm 2 pcs (different servers) I get “Bad Connection”.
    I wrote to them but no acknowledgement even.
    Thanks in adavance,
    Adrian Cobb
    1. Everyone’s been having the same problem since last night. It’s not the first time.

      Things always seem to go awry in the evening or at weekends and I get the distinct impression that very few of the technical staff work nights or weekends – strange for an increasingly online business.

    1. Well, sort of! I just printed out the Jumbo only to find that they’ve got the same set of clues for both Across and Down.
  6. 44 minutes.
    I found this really tricky. There were numerous unknowns and a few where I really wasn’t sure of myself so I was a big surprised not to have any errors. ASCLEPIUS looked only a bit less wrong than APCLESIUS. KIST could have been KYST. And INDIUM was just a complete guess. I did figure it out after submitting and rather liked it – cheeky!
  7. 14:04 for me. I’ve known KIST for ages – I think I first met it in one of Ximenes’s puzzles and have remembered it ever since. I baulked at ASCLEPIUS initially, unable to get AESCULAPIUS out of my mind, but remembered him once I had a few crossing letters. Loved INDIUM, though it took a long while for light to dawn.
  8. FAST (adjective) = SPEED (noun or verb) in the clue in 1 across? Or is USING SPEED an adjectival phrase, and USING not just a link word?

    OZ for LIGHTWEIGHT in the clue in 6 across. Surely an ounce is a light weight, not a lightweight?

    Otherwise, defeated by ignorance in the SE: didn’t know MESS KIT as formal wear, guessed BUST for the lightly-touched chest, and didn’t come close to parsing or guessing EYESTALK, or even knowing it was a word or existed on a crab – I would have said their eyes were set in the shell.

    Rob

    1. 1ac – that’s how I read it, yes.
      6ac – I see that as acceptable cryptic misdirection.
      21dn – nor did I but KIT for Christopher looked like a good start…
      28ac – I doubt if the Times would be so indelicate…
      30ac – well, I’d have said crabs are well-known for having eyes on stalks, as much as they are for walking sideways!

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